The Robots of Death Part Four

The one where the Doctor uses a squeaky voice to defeat his enemy...

Don't get me wrong, I love Pamela Salem and everything she does: she's sexy, a fantastically capable and strong actor, and she's one of many wonderful things in Remembrance of the Daleks. But my goodness, isn't Toos a wet blanket? A strong woman like Salem should not be playing wimpy, tied-to-the-railway-lines damsels in distress like Toos, she's meant for tougher, more impressive roles. When V6 tries to strangle Toos, all she does is whimper and whine, pleading for mercy. "No, please, no! Please!" she cries, uselessly. She doesn't even try to run away. Quite maddening really.

The robots really step it up in this final episode, stalking the corridors of the Sandminer looking for humans to kill. The face-off between the Doctor and Uvanov, and three robots coming at them from all directions, is great, and the fact one of the robots is a defective crazy repeating its aim to "kill, kill, kill" is really spooky. It's amusing that the Doctor escapes by disguising a robot with his own hat and scarf, because it does seem that robots have quite limited vision, at least when they've been modified.

The Robots of Death Part Three

The one where the robots go on a killing spree...

So, Commander Uvanov has form when it comes to murder. Ten years previously he left a crewmember outside to die so that he could maximise his lucanol haul. Rather than being reprimanded and punished, the company he worked for just gave him a slapped wrist and forgot about it, simply because he was the best, and most lucrative, sandminer pilot they had. Profit before morals. The man left out to die was none other than Zilda's brother, which is why she hated him so. Makes sense now. And two of the three people aboard this sandminer who know all this are now dead (Zilda and Kerril), so watch your back Poul!

But for some reason, the Doctor does not trust Chief Mover Poul. Maybe it's something to do with the fact Leela says he moves like a hunter, always watching and listening. The Doctor thinks he's lying (but about what isn't clear), so charges Leela with the task of following Poul, watching the watcher, hunting the hunter. Sadly, Poul's too clever by half and manages to lock Leela in the lounge, giving her a much-reduced role in this episode.

The Robots of Death Part Two

The one where the Sandminer crew starts dropping like flies...

Over the years the Doctor has shown that he carries some pretty wild and wacky things around in his pockets, everything from a tuning fork and a box of drawing pins, to a Polaroid camera and a felt tip pen. But one of the weirdest has to be the blowpipe that he uses here to breathe above the sand. Now, I'd accept it a little better if it was the same one he used in the Matrix in The Deadly Assassin, but then I suppose that wasn't a "real" blowpipe, so he couldn't have had that on him. It's not even the sort of blowpipe the Sevateem might have had.

The Doctor is rescued from the scoop by SV7, a wonderful performance by Miles Fothergill. The fluidity and harmony these robots exude is so cool, and Fothergill does it so well, and with that wonderfully calm and silky voice too. When things start to get very panicked and desperate aboard the Sandminer, it's great to see the robots untroubled by it, just carrying out their duties in their usual serene manner.

The Robots of Death Part One

The one where the Doctor explains dimensional transcendentalism...

I'll be honest from the get-go: The Robots of Death is one of a handful of stories I had on VHS back in the late 1980s when I was developing rapidly as a fan, and I absolutely adored this serial. I played that tape so often I'm surprised it didn't snap. The Robots of Death, along with The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Zygons, Pyramids of Mars and Death to the Daleks, were the Doctor Who stories I built the foundations of my fandom on, so in reviewing this story, I'm going to try my hardest to be objective.

But it's so hard when you've got such fabulous, rich material like this. There's no denying that it's bloody good, and right from the start too. Actually, I'd quite forgotten just how impressive that opening model shot of the barren, windswept alien landscape is, with the beautifully designed Sandminer rolling inexorably across the tundra. It looks so epic, and I love the establishing shot of the bridge seen from the outside too (done so much better than a similar shot of the Hyperion III a decade later!).